During the 1880s the City Council built plank platforms on public cab and dray stands so that the horses would not have to stand in water.

The problem continued to bedevil the city well into the 1890s. Mark Twain visited Winnipeg in 1895 and graciously rose to the occasion when called on to admire the local mud:

I have never seen real mud since I left the Missouri till today. Then when I looked out and saw the mud In the side streets I said 'Here I am at home again.' In the east either the poverty of the soil or the extent of the pavements precludes the possibility of real mud, and I am rather glad to see it again. In Hartford where I have lived for many years, we are strangers to it, even on the country roads.

Rainy weather could still make haulage impossible and this had such a serious impact on businesses and construction projects that in 1896 the CPR offered to charge only half rates on paving materials brought into Winnipeg.